Mattress or cushion and boxing therefor and process of making same



July 17, 1928.

l J. F. GAM.

MATTRESS OR CUSHION AND BOXING THEREFOR AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Filed Oct. 5, A19,27 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 17, 1928. l 1,617,232

J. F. GAIL MATTRESS OR CUSHION AND BOXING THEREFOR AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Filed 0G13. 5, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 @27272 VLM Patented July 17, 1928.-,

UNITED STATES A v1,677,232 PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN r. GAIL, or nvANsToN, ILLINOIS, AssIGNoR 'ro snimONs COMPANY, or NEW` Yonx, N. Y., .a CORPORATION or DELAWARE MATTRESS 0B CUSHION AND BOXING THEREFOR ANI) PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

l.Application tiled October 3, 1927. Serial No. 223,606.

The invention relates to articles of manufacture such as mattresses or cushions, 1n which the side edge of the mattress or like article is equipped with a strip` of ticking disposed more or less in a vertical plane so as to give what is enerally described as a box eii'ect. The sai side strip of tickin 1s therefore frequently called a boxing. he invention herein described is of particular value in connection with mattresses orcushions of substantial thickness, for example, more than four inches, although it will be readily understood that the scope of the invention need not necessaril be limited to a mattress of any special thic ness'.

Particular] in the case of mattresses or like articles li a deep or hi h box, great di fiicult taining the e ge of the mattress substantially vertical and preventing the box from bulging into a more or less convex or semi-circular outline, and thus destroying the desired trim, vertical effect of the boxing.

The tendency ot' the boxing to bulge is to a certain extent reduced by rovidlng the mattress with what is terme a roll ed e. This supports the boxin for a. short distance below the corner, w ich thus serves to reduce the free, unsupported area of the boxing, but it will be readil understood that with a high box there stil remains a very considerable depth or height of boxing unsupported or uncontrolledbetween the upper and lower roll edges.

Furthermore, because of lack of uniformity in the roll edge stitches and :Filling and variations in the lengthor fullness of the boxing strip or its elasticity there is usually present a more or less ha hazard wrinkled effect which is quite unsig tly.

Attempts have also been made to still fur- F ther support this intermediate area of the boxing applyin 1 additional stitches connecting t ie bod o the mattress with points on the boxing ocated' intermediate the roll edges. A mattress of this last mentioned type is usually said to have an imperial edge, and, so.l far as I am aware, prior to my invention, this im erial edge represents the best e'orts of ot ers in the direction of preventing the boxing from bulging outwardly, and of minimlzing this slop y haphazard wrinkled appearance hereto ore referred to.

The principal objects of the present invenaving has een experience 1n main- 4 tion are to provide a boxing which is itself constructed so as to resist outward bulging and to' maintain itself in a. vertical plane; to provide a mattress having a boxin with means for resiliently maintaining sai boxing in a stretched, vertical condition, and to prevent bulging thereof outwardly; to

provide a boxing with an external contour or process for making the same.

In the drawings accompanying this application, which illustrate my improved boxlngI as applied to a mattress of the .Marshall type.

Fig. 1 represents somewhat diagrammatically the manner in which my improved boxing is manufactured prior to its application to the mattress structure,

Fig. 2 is a pers ective view of a portion of a strip of such oxing,

Fig. 3 is a vertical section showing the manner in which the boxing and other parts of the mattress are assembled,

Fig. 4 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig. 3 prior to the application of the top, felt layer.

lFig. 5 is a plan view of the lpart shown in gig. 6 is a fragmentary, vertical cross sec. tion through the mattress at one side or end thereof,

Fig. 7 is a plan view similar to Fig. 5, but showing a somewhat modified type of'con struction, and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary part-sectional view of a mattress still further modified in construction.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1, I have illustrated rather diagrammaticallv a roll 10 of ticking material 11 and a roll 1Q of lining material 13. The ticking strip 11 iamade either of the same material as the top and bottom ticks of the mattress or of a material such as will properly match with the said top and bottom ticks. The liner strips 13 may be of ordinary' cottonsheettIlia numeral 14 represents a roll or coil of fibrous filling material l5, which ordinarily will be felted cotton such as is conveniently produced on the usual Garnett machine. As shown in Fig. 2, the strips 11 and 13 may be hemined, as indicated at 16 and 17, on both edges of each strip.

The rolls 10, 12 and 14 are so supported that the strips 11, 13 and 15 may be paid out therefrom simultaneously through the field of a stitching machine indicated diagrammatically at 18. Said stitching inacliine 18 is arranged tofeed across the fabric, either by bodily movement of the stitching machine itself, or by movement of the three-ply strip relative to a stationary sewing machine. In any case, the sewing niachine 18 is operated so that there will be 1nserted in or across the composite boxing strip a series of parallel seams or rows of stitching 19 which are uniformly spaced longitudinally of or along the strip. These stitches extend through all three plies of the strip and serve to compress the fibrous filling material at said seam lines, thereby resulting in the formation of flutes 20. Preferably, the spacing of the seam lines 19 along the strip and the thickness of the filling layer 15 are so adjusted that the maximum thickness of each flute of the boxing is quite considerable compared with the spacing of the seams. I have found that a very good multi-columnar or colonnade effect is produced when the flute is made of such thickness that its radius of curvature on its outer convex side is not materially greater than the spacing of the seams.

My improved quilted boxing, as above described, may be made up in large quantities in advance. preferably in roll form, to be used as needed in the construction or asseinbly of the complete mattresses or cushions. I will now describe the manner in which the assembly may be ellected in case of a mattress of the Marshall type, and incidentally the manner in which other desirable features of my invention may be incorporated in a mattress of the Marshall or any other desired type, for example, a felt mattress.

Referring to Fig. 5, it will be seen that the main body of the mattress. which is of the Marshall type, is composed of a series of nested rows of axially vertical, helical springs 21, which are contained in individual pockets 22 connected together in the form of a continuous strip of the wellknown Marshall type, as shown. Extending across the width of the mattress I prefer to apply a series of cords 23 at the top and bottom of the mattress, which serve to hold the rows of spring filled pockets in intimate, nested contact with each other. as "howin In view of the fact that the sti-ips of pockeis extend from head to foot or from end to end of the mattress, it is not ordinarily necessary to provide such connection cords in that direction.

To assemble the mattress, the core oi` body, comprising the strips of spring filled, pockets assembled and connected together, 1s placed on a suitable table or support 2 4, an a length of the boxing strip, designated as a whole 25, is applied around the outside of the core or body, as shown. The inner, liner strip 13 is then connected to the outer row of springs of the Marshall core by means of ties, which may he of any type, but I prefer in this instance to employ a long len h of suitable cord 26, which hy means o a needle is hitched or knotted around the top, heiiiined edge of the inner strip 13 and the top coil of the spring iii the outer row.

f The tying of the springs to the boxing, among other advantages, serves to maintain the boxing in a flat vertical plane, and also prevents the upper lling layer from working down between the'springs and the boxing and thus producing unsightly hulges in the boxing.

Preferably, the spacing of the seams 19, that is to say` the width of the flutes 2l). is made a definite, fixed ratio ofthe diameter or spacing of the springs 21 of the outer row of the mattress body, so that the fluting will be uniform as to its external appearance regardless of pull imposed thereon by the cord tie connections 27. In view of the fact that, in my opinion, to get the liest effect, the fluting should be considerably less iu width than the diameter of the Marshall springs as customarily employed, I prefer to use a fluting width which is two-thirds of the spring spacing. that is to say. three flutes will span a distance equal to twice thc spring spacing. Iii such case, as shown in Fig. 5, I am enabled to employ a single tie 27 to connect the flute 28 to the spring 29, whereas in the case of the spring 30 I einploy two tics 31 and 32 for connecting said spring 30, respectively, to the flutes 33 and 34. In this way each of the flutes has its own connection to the outer row of springs of the mattress body, and the spacing of said tie connections is sufficiently uniform so that no adverse effect upon the evenness of the outer surface of the tluting is observed.

After the outer row or rows of springs have been connected to the upper end lower edges of the boxingr around the entire outer edge of tlie mattress. the usual upper and lower layers of paddinr 35 and 36 are applied, after which the edges of the tick strip 11 of the boxing are sewed to the adjacent edges of the upper and lower tick parts 37 i usualmanner, as indicated at 41 in Fig. 8,

,iff-

' 'Laternen` and 38, as indicated at 33 and 40. After the. seams 39 and 40 have been sewed, the main bodyL of ,the mattress vis tufted in the and the roll edges 42and 43 are formed by stitchesas 'at`44, as shown inFigs. 6 and 8. Asshown best in Fig. 8, the roll edge ties 44, which in the present case are of the usual continuous co'rd hand-inserted type, intersect vthe relatively -inextensible seams or stitch- .bulging of the boxing to the 'areas located between the seam lines and thus greatly im proves the appearance of the boxing.

It. will be observed thatby the use of the outer row of .springs in co-operation with the box of the mattress, said boxing is always stretched vertically and its desired verticality, freev from bulging, is efectively maintained. This .is particularly true in lthe-case of the two-ply boxing herein disclosed, since the use of the inner strip df sheeting enables the sprin s of the outer row to be conveniently and ei ectively connected to the boxing without any objectionable external indication of such connection., Also because of the pronounced ilute eifect,.due to the presence of therelatively thick bodies of lling interposed between the outer and inner strips of the boxing, the boxin itself has inherently a certain amount o form and rigidity, which I,form is also .maintained or preserved by the action of the springs in the outer row, which is connected to said boxing. Preferably, the outer row of springs may be placed under a slight compression so as to insure a positive stretching eil'ect at all times.

Not only does the employment of comparatively narrow spacing of 'the vertical seams l in the boxing result in the obtaining of the desired handsome, luted ei'ect without the necessity of employing an inordinate thickness of lling layer 15, but, as is well known to decorators andv dress designers, the vertiequipped with my improved fluted boxing cal striping or luting has an important er#V feet in accentuating the hei ht of the boxing. To this end. also, the roll e ge of a mattress and border spring combination may be made less bulky than in the case of the ordinary mattress without any correspondin danger of bulging. Obviousl, the use o a c0mparatively narrow rol edge. still further j serves to increaseithe apparent height of the boxing as compared with -an ordinary mattress of the same actualthickness.

In Fig. 7 I have illustrated a'constructin in which the springs are of the samel diameter of spacingyas'the distance between the seams 46 which separate the flutes 47. This simplifies somewhat the connections 48 the inner strip 49, but, for reasons prev1ously stated, the construction showninFig. 5 has other advantages. Y 1 In Fig. 8 I have shown a further modiicatiomin which-the felt layers 50 and 51 arev not indirect contact with the tops of thespring iilledvpockets. In this modified lbetween the top coils of the springs 45 and form there is applied an inner, top sheet 52 and a similar, inner, bottoni sheet- 53,' which extends over the entire area of' the Marshall body. In this case the outer edges of the sheets 52 and 53 are preferably hemmed, as.

indicated at 54, and said hemmed edges `are directly connected to the hemmed edges 17 of the inner strip 13.

The described detailsof construction and assembly being illustrative ofpreferred applications only of the invention, the scope of the same should be determined by reference to the appended claims, said claims being construed as-broadly as possible consistent with the state of the art.

I claim as my invention:

1. The improvement in the art of manufactoring a mattress having springs incorporated in the filling adjacent the edge of the mattress for maintaining the verticality of the boxing, which consists in making the boxing, connecting the springs to the inner face of said boxing, completing the formaltion of the body or filler of the mattress, ap-

:the mattress casing and then sewing the edge of the boxing thereto.

'2. In a mattress, the combination of a boxing having an inner ply, an outer ply, resilient illinor material interposed between the plies, vertically compressible springs arranged adjacent to the inner ply,`concealed means lying wholly within the outer ply connecting saidinner ply to the springs, and regularly spaced connections between the outer and inner plies serving to connect the outer ply to the springs through the medium of said first mentioned connections while at the same time compressing the interposed illingmaterial and 'producing a quilted effeet in the boxing.- f

3. In a roll-edge mattress-or cushion, the combination of a top tick` portion, a quilted boxing having an outer ply of textile fabric,

said layer and between the top and the outer boxing ply so as to produce a roll-edge effeet, the outer ends of said ties registering with the stitch chains.

4. In a mattress, the combination of the filling, a casing for said filling having a generally vertically dispo :edside portion cornprising the boxing, a series of parallel stitch chains extending vertically across the side portion, and ties for connecting the upper ends of the stitch chains to the upper portion of the filling whereby the tension on said ties due to the resiliency of the filling will be applied to the boxing at said Srita? chains so as to impart a fluted or multi-` columnar shape to said boxing.

cal heig t of the boxing whereby1 the horiz'ontal cross section of said interspaces is substantially uniform throughout their I height.

Date, October 1, 1927.4

or-mr. GAIL. 

